A title change in an ongoing series, prompted by some plot event, a break in production or switching between publishers. Frequently, but not always, involves adding a new subtitle or suffix. Despite the name, does not have to occur at the start of a new season.

In some cases, producers will pass off an essentially new series as a renamed Re Tool of an existing series just to preserve its distribution channel. This was once common in American comic books due to a quirk of postal regulations. Publishing a new title required a new postal code for second-class mail subscriptions and, thus, a new postal fee as well. To avoid paying the fees, instead of just canceling one book and starting up another with issue #1, they would give the old series a title change... but not too much of a title change, so as to avoid the wrath of the Postal Service.

Examples:

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Anime

Common in anime because of the way Japanese television works. Japanese series don't have "seasons" the way American television does; they produce either a small, preplanned number of episodes in advance— usually some multiple of 13— or they just.Keep.Going without a break, because if they didn't, they'd lose their time slot. If the creators of a show that has taken a break want to bring it back, they need to find a time slot and pitch it as if it were a brand new show, so they generally retitle it to reflect this. Sometimes what would be considered a "second season" in America is treated as a Numbered Sequel as though it were a film sequel, as in Genshiken 2 and The Big O 2. These are sometimes marketed as "seasons" for American release.

The seasons of Sailor Moon were, in order, Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon SuperS, and Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. It is important to note that these actually mean something, or at least the last three do (Super [the form that Sailor Moon achieves], Supers [the others upgrading to this form], Stars [a reference to either the Sailor Starlights or the fact there are hundreds of Sailor Senshi in the universe]). The R in the second season title is widely debated by fans; popular candidates are "Romance" or "Return" (the latter of which would be a logical pick as this was the season in which Usagi must return to being Sailor Moon because of a new evil that has come to Earth), but there is no concrete Word of God to answer this one.

Black Lagoon was renewed as Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage. Then the OVA series that continued it was Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail.

The Trigun manga was renamed "Trigun Maximum" when it continued into another magazine. This naming was kept in the American version.

The manga Gensoumaden Saiyuki became Saiyuki Reload when it switched magazines, and then the subtitle changed again to Gunlock.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is a prime example of this. The series became Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai in the second season. Then the first OVA was renamed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei and the second OVA Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira. A bit of a mouthful, isn't it? Also, each arc has a different name, which surely doesn't help relieve the confusion of new audiences. The sequel, Umineko no Naku Koro ni is sometimes accompanied by the subtitle of "When They Cry 3", but there's hardly any relationship between Higurashi kai and this theoretical third season.

This is because the original visual novels are numbered that way, Higurashi (ep 1-4) is When They Cry 1, Higurashi Kai (5-8) is When They Cry 2, Umineko (1-4) is 3 and Umineko Chiru (5-8) is 4. There are so far no outright statements that they are linked but there are hints (especially the Bernkastel/Rika and Lambadelta/Takano thing) towards a connection and there are some theories that it will be a total of 4 series ( When They Cry 5&6 and 7&8) because Higurashi contained 8 episodes and Umineko is now confirmed to be finished with episode 8.

Dragon Ball became Dragon Ball Z just before Radditz' appearance to emphasize the shift from "freewheeling adventure peppered with the occasional fight scene" to the Trope Codifier of all Shonen Anime that came after, and the anime-only series that followed that was called Dragon Ball GT, short for "Grand Tour".

Hidamari Sketch has four seasons thus far and starts adding subtitles with the second; subtitles to date are "×365", "×Hoshimittsu" ("Three Stars"), and "×Honeycomb", with a pair of straight-to-DVD OVAs subtitled "×SP" ("Special").

Slayers at 26 episodes a season, with later seasons named NEXT, TRY, Revolution and Evolution-R (the latter two basically being a typical 26-episode season split in two).

Digimon Xros Wars, unlike the preceding Digimon series, split itself into two seasons to reflect a change in the story arc; episode 31 marked the start of said second season, retitled "Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms". In the original Japanese version, the six series of Digimon are all distinctly separate series, not individual seasons of one overarching show, so they don't fall under this trope; in the US, thefirstfourseries were all dubbed as individual seasons of one show, but it was all called "Digimon: Digital Monsters" with no individual season names.

Although Ouvertüre is explained, as it means opening, as in beginning. Träumend, which means dreaming, isn't too much, though.

The Pokémon anime changes its name when it adapts the plot from the latest games released at the time. In the original Japanese, this practice actually began in Generation III, while the dub began this practice earlier with the Generation II games, with changes for every 52 episode broadcast season.

The second season of Zero no Tsukaima was Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi; the third was Zero no Tsukaima: Princess no Rondo.

Ojamajo Doremi had a new title for each subsequent season: Ojamajo Doremi #, Mo~tto Ojamajo Doremi and Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan! An OVA titled Ojamajo Doremi Naisho came out, but it's set during the third season.

A borderline example, but when Strike Witches got a second season, it was named Strike Witches 2, complete with a new logo.

Super Robot Wars: Divine Wars became Super Robot Wars: The Inspector because the first season focused on the war against Divine Crusaders while in the second season a group of aliens called the Inspectors attacked. Neither group are the final bosses of the season though.

Although the original Japanese run of Yu-Gi-Oh! kept the same title throughout, the English dub began adding a new subtitle to it with each new season starting with the third. Season 3 was known as "Enter the Shadow Realm", Season 4 was "Waking the Dragons", the first half of season 5 was "Grand Championship" and the second half of season 5 was titled "Dawn of the Duel."

The Genshiken anime is followed by Genshiken 2, adapting the last few volumes of the manga, which is simple enough. Then, just to complicate things, the manga and anime continue with Genshiken Nidaime in Japan, which is released in America as Genshiken Second Season. So for those keeping score, it goes Genshiken -> Genshiken 2 -> Genshiken Second Season.

Cardfight!! Vanguard started adding subtitles for each season after the first. Season Two was Asia Circuit, Season Three was Link Joker, and Season Four was Legion Mate. All four are even listed separately on the official release on Cruncyroll.

EC Comics had one of the most infamous examples of this, as they tried to meet the changing tastes of comic book readers.

Moon Girl started as a title about a superheroine. The title became Moon Girl Fights Crime in issues #7 and #8, because "crime" comics were hot. Romance books were also selling, so the book became A Moon, a Girl...Romance from #9, until finally abandoning Moons and Girls altogether and becoming Weird Fantasy with #13.

"The Crypt of Terror" and the Crypt-Keeper were introduced as part of Crime Patrol #15. Issue #16 was entirely dedicated to horror, and with issue #17 The Crypt of Terror displaced Crime Patrol. The title was further altered to Tales from the Crypt with issue #20, so as to be less scary to sellers.

The Haunt of Fear took over the numbering of Gunfighter from #15, but since the Post Office objected in this case, the fourth Haunt of Fear had to be issued as #4 instead of #18.

The final two issues of Captain America's Golden Age series were titled Captain America's Weird Tales, because horror was selling and superheroes weren't.

Once Iron Man graduated to his own title, Tales of Suspense subsequently changed its title to Captain America at issue #100.

The X-Men have had this happen twice, and multiple times in the case of one title! The original X-Men book was officially changed to The Uncanny X-Men when the famous Days of Future Past arc rolled around. Meanwhile, the 90's book changed it's title to New X-Men when Grant Morrison took over as writer to emphasize the new tone of the book. Not long after Morrison left it went back to just being called X-Men. Then in 2008 it was renamed X-Men: Legacy to emphasize more on the fact that it was less of an ensemble book and moreso focused on a central character and their history in the X-Men universe.

The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg was going to take a page out of the Power Rangers book by renaming itself Mystic Knights Battle Thunder for the next season. It was cancelled after its single season instead, however.

The later seasons of Yes, Minister were renamed Yes, Prime Minister, to reflect Jim Hacker's promotion to PM.

The Canadian sci-fi show Zixx appended Level One, Level Two and Level Three to its title to represent the current season.

From "The Day of the Eternal Song" onwards, KateModern changed its name to in the name of ...KateModern.

While it's not technically a sequel, the short-lived TV series James at 15 was renamed James at 16 as of the episode wherein he celebrated his 16th birthday.

After being just known as Red Dwarf for its first two series, the third series had an Opening Scroll that dubbed the series "Red Dwarf III", although the main title sequence and new logo did not incorporate the number (a few fans also list the third season as having a subtitle "The Saga Continuums", also taken from the crawl). For some reason the listings magazines picked up on this and from then on the show was renamed each series ("Red Dwarf IV", "V" etc). even though the opening titles did not reflect this. However, the covers of the video releases did. In fact, the later video releases of the first two seasons retitled them 'Red Dwarf I' and 'II', respectively.

This numbering was finally acknowledged in the opening titles when they slapped the Roman numerals onto the title screens of Series VII and a tally on Series VIII.

Each series of Babylon 5 has its own subtitle: 'Signs and Portents', 'The Coming of Shadows', 'Point of No Return', 'No Surrender, No Retreat' and 'The Wheel of Fire'. However, this subtitle does not appear in the credits and was strictly informal until the DVD releases, when the subtitle was included on the front cover packaging.

The season titles were also the titles of the most significant episodes in that season, which did appear on screen. Thus, Season I was named Signs and Portents after the episode that introduced Morden and really kicked off the Myth Arc, and so on.

A lot of location-based Reality TV shows do this to reflect the change in location for the new season: Survivor: Africa, Survivor: Thailand, etc.

By the end of the first season of Cougartown, the producers felt that the name no longer fit the show's premise, but couldn't come up with a new name. So in the first episode of the second season, the title card reads (Still) Cougartown. The subtitle became a Couch Gag in subsequent episodes - (Badly Titled) Cougartown, (Titles Are Hard) Cougartown, etc.

Indeed, the original broadcasts of the first two episodes of season 3 retained the Enterprise title, with Star Trek added for the third episode. This was changed on later screenings.

An easily missed example: Blake's 7 was renamed Blake's Seven in the new opening titles for its fourth and final season.

The TV adaptation of Goosebumps was renamed Ultimate Goosebumps for seasons 3 and 4. The show was named Goosebumps when it aired on Cartoon Network during Halloween (including the "Ultimate Goosebumps" episodes)

Saturday Night Live: Yes, the show that has saw many changes in cast, crew, directors, and writing teams has had its title changed a few times.

Back when the show first started, it was called NBC's Saturday Night (Lorne Michaels wanted his show to be called Saturday Night Live right off the bat, but ABC already had a variety show with that name — this one had Howard Cosell — who later hosted the last episode of SNL's tenth season — as a permanent host).

In its second season, the "NBC" part was dropped and the show was just called Saturday Night, at which time, the ABC version of Saturday Night Live was flopping and Bill Murray (a cast member from thatSNL) was hired as a replacement for Chevy Chase (who left the NBC SNL for a girl and a movie career). By season three of the NBC SNL, the ABC SNL was canceled and Lorne Michaels could finally call the show Saturday Night Live.

During the 1980-1981 season, the show was retitled Saturday Night Live '80 to separate this season from the first five. This, much like Jean Doumanian's tenure during that season, didn't last and wasn't looked at favorably among fans. When Dick Ebersol was hired as Doumanian's replacement, the show was changed back to being called Saturday Night Live, though its Weekend Update segment went through many title changes under Ebersol's reign as executive producer (it was called SNL Newsbreak in season seven, then Saturday Night News in seasons 8, 9, and 10).

From season seven on, Saturday Night Live has kept its name, though most fans today (and in a lot of commercial bumpers from season 22 to now) refer to the show as SNL due to ease of reference.

Saturday Night Live in its 15th, 20th, 25th, and 35th seasons have been referred to as Saturday Night Live or SNL plus the respective number (SNL 15, SNL 20, SNL 25, and SNL 35) to commemorate the show staying on the air for 15, 20, 25, and 35 years.

The Canadian sketch show SCTV became SCTV Network 90 in 1981 when it expands to 90 minutes and broadens its audience to Americans.

Almost-example: Had Threshold not been cancelled, series two would have been called "Foothold" and series three "Stranglehold". Both names would have represented the progress of the aliens in taking over the world.

Another almost-example: Stargate SG-1 was nearly renamed Stargate Command for its ninth season, in recognition of its major cast changes (including a new lead actor) and new main villain (the Ori). Ultimately they kept the original title.

And another. Bill Lawrence urged for Scrubs to be renamed Scrubs Med for its ninth and final season, given the cast changes and altered status quo.

19 Kids and Counting started out as 17 Kids and Counting in 2008, but the Duggars had two more kids since then (and have another on the way).

Among the many changes that came with the second season of War of the Worlds was to relabel it War of the Worlds: The Second Invasion.

The rub is that while this made a kinda sense at first, poor writing led to a continuity collapse that ultimately showed that there was never a "first" invasion.

All Quiet On The Preston Front became simply Preston Front after its first season, since everybody called it that anyway.

Homefront: Inside Out dropped the "Inside Out" part of its title after the original Homefront show it spun off from was axed.

Dragnet's run starting in 1967 was called Dragnet 1967, Dragnet 1968, thru 1971.

And the 2003-2004 series starring Ed O'Neil as Joe Friday (yes, really) changed its name from Dragnet to L.A. Dragnet.

After it was expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was renamed into The Alfred Hitchcock Hour for its final three seasons.

Spartacus has a different subtitle for each of its seasons. Many people assume that the title of series as a whole is Spartacus: Blood and Sand, but that's only the title of the first season. In fact, it's still listed under that title in this very wiki.

Though some might consider it to be a sequel series, "Archie Bunker's Place" was a mere title change of All In The Family, carrying on without pause from AITF's ninth season.

When the famous Australian variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday moved from Saturday mornings to nights in 1984, the show was renamed Hey Hey It's Saturday Night. In 1985, the title went back to Hey Hey It's Saturday and stayed that way until the show ended in 1999.

The first season of Blackadder was known as The Black Adder. The next series would be called Blackadder II, Blackadder The Third, and Blackadder Goes Forth.

The Adventures of Superboy was originally known only as Superboy for the first two seasons. It became The Adventures of Superboy starting with season three, in which many changes took place, including a change of setting and a significant shift in tone.

The third and fourth seasons of Engrenages/Spiral got individual subtitles in English-language marketing, being titled The Butcher of La Villette and State of Chaos.

Western Animation

Starting with season 3, Totally Spies! added the word "Undercover" underneath the title in the opening and its Eye Catch.

Archer, for it's fifth season, went with the title Archer Vice, shaking up the plot a bit by having ISIS disbanded and the principle cast forming a drug cartel, trying to sell a literal ton of cocaine. After the season ended and the spy premise of the show was reinstated, Archer went back to its original title.

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